The invention relates to a method and apparatus for ventilating electrical equipment on board a DC-powered rail vehicle, and more particularly to ventilation apparatus including, for each piece of electrical equipment, an associated fan controlled by an electric motor. The ventilation apparatus preferably applies to rail traction vehicles, such vehicles having many pieces of ventilated electrical equipment on board.
Normally, each piece of power equipment in a power car, such as transformers, traction motors, braking rheostats, and electronic power units, are individually cooled, each by means of a respective fan driven by an electric motor, all of the motors being powered with electricity by the same converter, on board the car, that transforms the DC available at the catenary into AC suitable for operating power equipment. However, such ventilation apparatus has the drawback of causing the various fans to operate collectively. Thus, as soon as any one of the fans is required to operate at full power in order to ensure that the electrical equipment associated therewith is cooled, then the converter also powers the other fans at full power, thereby causing an unnecessary increase in the amount of power consumed, and generating additional noise pollution.
The object of the present invention is thus to propose a method and apparatus for ventilating electrical equipment on board a rail vehicle, thereby making the rail vehicle more comfortable by reducing noise pollution, and also reducing the amount of power it consumes.
The invention proposes apparatus for ventilating electrical equipment on board a rail vehicle, said rail vehicle being powered with DC either directly by an electricity pick-up system connected to a DC source, or indirectly by rectifying and filtering electricity picked up by an electricity pick-up system connected to a single-phase AC source, each piece of electrical equipment being ventilated by means of a respective cooling fan controlled by an electric motor, wherein the electric motors are asynchronous motors, each fan electric motor being powered with three-phase AC by an individual converter connected to the DC for powering the rail vehicle.
The apparatus of the invention for ventilating on-board electrical equipment can also include one or more of the following characteristics taken in isolation or in any technically feasible combination:
the individual converter is integrated on the stand of the motor of said fan;
each fan power converter is controlled as a function of the power consumed by the associated electrical equipment; and
the rail vehicle is a car including electrical power equipment such as transformers, traction motors, braking rheostats, or electronic power units.
The invention also relates to a method of ventilating electrical equipment on board a DC-powered rail vehicle, each piece of electrical equipment being ventilated by means of a respective cooling fan controlled by an electric motor, wherein each fan electric motor is independently powered with three-phase AC by means of an individual converter connected to the DC for powering the rail vehicle, the converter being controlled as a function of the power consumed by the associated electrical equipment.
In another characteristic of the method of the invention, each converter is controlled so that cooling of the associated electrical equipment is proportional to the power consumed by the electrical equipment.